John Lapp to build an insulator plant in LeRoy

Another Industry Has Been Located in LeRoy

Work on New Insulator Plant to Begin At Once

Company will Employ From 40 to 60 Men and Expects to Grow – Splendid Local Spirit

As a result of negotiations that have been under way the past three months between John S. Lapp of Victor and other men identified with him in the enterprise and the directors of the LeRoy Board of Trade, who have had the hearty co-operation and support of the business men and citizens of LeRoy, arrangements have been concluded for the location in LeRoy of the Lapp Electrical Manufacturing C., a concern that will extensively engage in the manufacture of insulators for power transmissions lines of all kinds, together with various other allied electrical products.

The company is composed of men prominent in the electrical business, and is capitalized for $150,000. Mr. Lapp has been engaged as general manager and work on the new plant is to begin just as soon as the transfer of the title to the land which the company is to occupy can be made. The site of the industry is a six-acre plot from the Robert Heaman farm, located on the north side of Gilbert Street just outside the village limits. The tracks of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railroad form the north boundary to the land and a switch from their lines will be extended into the plant. Mr. Lapp plans to open a temporary office in LeRoy within the next few days. With a reasonable amount of fair weather it is expected that the plant will be ready for operation about May first.

The plant is to built in units and the first will cover about an acre of land. It will be a one-story building of fire-proof construction, and the first unit will give employment to from 40 to 60 men, a considerable number of whom will be skilled employees. The products of the company will be marketed throughout the united States and some export business will be done. Orders that will keep the plant busy for six months have already been received. The lay-out of the new plant is pleasing and calls for plenty of lawn space, shrubbery and trees. The site is admirably adapted to such a treatment and the whole will prove a decided credit to the section of LeRoy. In which it is to be located. The weekly payroll will be approximately $900 at the beginning.

Mr. Lapp who for a number of years has been engaged in the manufacture of insulators, began looking for a site for the location of a plant about six months ago, since which time he has covered the ground between West Virginia and Central New York pretty thoroughly. Of all the towns he visited, he selected LeRoy as offering the largest number of advantages as being the one in which he preferred to locate his industry and in which rather live himself and have his employees live. This was largely determined in his own mind before he made himself known to the directors of the Board of Trade and speaks volumes for the natural advantages of LeRoy. His proposition to the Board of Trade was concise and to the point. He asked LeRoy to furnish him with the six acre site, to guarantee that electric, gas and water lines would be extended to the plant and to secure for him an option upon six acres of additional land running for a period of three years.

The options were secured, and assurances obtained that the electric, gas and water lines would be extended. On Friday evening, November 24th Mr. Lapp met the Board of Trade directors and a number of prominent citizens in the O-At-ka Hose rooms when he was informed that LeRoy stood ready to deliver its part of the agreement. Mr. Lapp said that he would give a definite answer within a couple or three days and later he telephoned to D.J. O’Shea, president of the Board of Trade, that the company would come to LeRoy. The directors of the board met Tuesday night together with interested citizens, and made plans for the raising of the $2500 necessary to purchase the site. The full amount was subscribed by citizens of LeRoy before 9 o’clock of the following day and if a number of citizens who have not yet been seen do their part as well as those who were solicited at least $3000 will have been given. It is likely that all who subscribed will receive back from the Board of Trade from 15 to 25 percent of the amount pledged as any surplus above the amount actually expended for the land is to rebated.

Mr. Lapp spent last Friday in LeRoy and stated that his splendid exhibition of public spirit fully substantiated the opinion he had formed of LeRoy and LeRoy people when he selected it as the home for his industry. It is very probable that within the next two years two other allied industries will locate here upon the additional land optioned for Mr. Lapp from William Yule, just east of the Heaman land.